On Wednesday the 26th we drove over to Douglas after some last minute packing and cleaning. I picked up Elder S and we headed back to Tifton seeing people along the way. Thursday I brought him up to speed in weekly planning and the rest of the week we had a good week. Things were going good as we were getting along good and having lots of fun (if being somewhat distracting to each other). We were also staying rather busy.
This brings us to the official creation of the GMM on July the 1st.
Monday (July 1st)
Knowing the President Cottle would be visiting on Wednesday and having been asked to have a picture for President Cottle, Elder Carlson attempted to print a picture in Walmart. He inserted his hard drive into the large touch screen device and things began smoothly. He activated the system scanner and it recognized the hard drive. It whirred as terabytes of information where fed through the short USB cable into the computer's memory. Elder Carlson attempted to navigate to the folder on the hard drive in which he knew that the picture he wanted was. The computer retaliated with debilitating slowness. Elder Carlson poked and prodded to coax the machine into selecting the folder he wanted but the machine had a complete hold on his hard drive's file tree. Gritting his teeth and steeling his patience, he steadied himself on the thin legged stool and took a deep breath while his companion wandered the electronics aisle. He managed to get the computer to the correct folder only to have it take so long that he gave up and decided he would just use a picture he already had. They walked away with Elder Carlson vowing he would never again allow himself to be subjected to Walmart's photo center. Having procured their needed groceries, they waited for the Sisters for a few minutes only to learn several minutes later they were out in the car. They ran outside and got their groceries back in the car. The rest of the preparation day went much smoother and was quite enjoyable. We had a good preparation day and I enjoyed it.
Tuesday (the 2nd)
It felt rather odd. Usually we have district meeting Tuesday morning and this week we didn't have that on account of the meeting with the President in Douglas the following day. We stayed busy and tried our best to make the most of everything. We had a very interesting lesson with a man named L. He was a very nice guy who mostly talked to us about how he had been preserved by the Lord. We tried to share a little bit about how families can be together forever but he talked a lot which made it difficult for us to say much.
Wednesday (the 3rd)
Was the big day- we drove to Douglas and met President Cottle. It was much longer than I expected. I was very happy to see old friends like Elder Y, Elder D, Elder W, and the like. Particularly Elder W since I hadn't seen him in a long time. We had a couple "Remember when..." moments and we had some good laughs. He brought me up to speed on some stuff and it was nice. My face hurt afterwards from smiling so much. I felt a little like Ammon meeting is companions after their long time of separation. The assistants gave a long presentation on the importance of baptism and we were able to ask questions about what's different in the new mission. It was very different but at this point the Lord is moving forward and so am I. Things are settling into grooves and things are coming together. We got back and had dinner around 7.
Thursday (the 4th)
It's usually our weekly planning day, Thursday. But in the GMM it's on Friday. It felt a tad odd to not do weekly planning on a Thursday but it worked out. We rode through neighborhoods taking a very long route on our bikes we could smell the grills warming up and the various smells of barbecue's. We were both very hungry but finally the time came for lunch. We went over to the C's and we ate so much food! I had two hamburgers, a large pile of baked beans, a large pile of bbq chips as well as a smaller but decent pile of sour cream and onion chips. Then it was dessert. We got a slice of chocolate cake and put ice cream on top. I think it could possibly approach being too chocolaty for you [Mom] even. It was very rich. It was called "Chocolate Trinity". It was dark chocolate with fudge and other chocolaty things in it. Then we roasted marshmallows and stirred the marshmallow in. It was really really good. Elder S almost didn't finish his but then Sister C brought out a dutch apple pie from Paula Dean. I ate half a slice and together with the Sisters convinced Elder S to eat half a slice. He was feeling pretty sick afterwards actually. It was kind of funny at the time though. =) He's okay now though. We got back to the apartment and Elder S wasn't feeling good. We had been asked to be in our apartment by 7 at the latest. It was only about 5:30 or maybe 6 o'clock or so. I determined we needed to make the best use of our time and get out to work. Elder S was understandably less than enthusiastic. But with some determination and maybe a little dragging on my part we got out the door. I felt it would be a good idea to knock on a house we had rode by that morning as well as usually run by most mornings. They weren't interested. I felt to knock the next two as well. The other one wasn't home but on the last one we knocked, Don answered the door. We talked briefly about how things were going that day and he asked if he could help us (that's a common question here in the south- it basically means why are you here on my doorstep?). I then explained "We are missionaries for Jesus Christ. We are here to share a message about Jesus Christ, families, and why bad things happen to good people". He swung the door open and walked inside with a gesture. He looked back and said "Come on in". Excited we locked our bikes up and had a great discussion with him. He's very knowledgeable in the scriptures and had some questions about Joseph Smith. His daughter wanted to be there but had to go. They're a great family and we're really hopeful for them (the story gets even better but that comes next week). We were out till 7:30 but it was worth it. We were both very grateful and had a good evening.
Friday the 6th
Was weekly planning. Not much else happened. We had a lesson with a man named M- great guy. He does wear underwear on his head (it's a hat I think he made himself. I looks better than you think and it's only by looking at the waist band you realize he's sporting Hanes). We invited him to be baptized (the assistants had challenged us on Wednesday to do so within 48 hours). He's not ready yet but we'll keep working with him. We also had a great impromptu dinner with the M's. They're very nice and the Sisters had the lesson. It was funny because at the end they asked which one of the boys wanted to say the prayer. "Jesus!" came the young boy's response. "Well- he's not here right now." I thought it was pretty funny.
Saturday the 7th
Was our usually Fitzgerald day. We had a good visit with Brother M where Elder S described church as a spiritual monster that would boost him up. We also had a great discussion with our ward mission leader, Brother K, who is a church history buff about the Pearl of Great Price and Emma Smith. It was a good but somewhat long visit (don't worry we talked about missionary work in Fitzgerald as well- that's what we came for).
Sunday the 8th
Was a good day. Fast and testimony meeting was good. I enjoyed it. I hope y'all are well and doing good.
Know how much I love and miss you all!
Elder Matthew Carlson
